Boris Johnson Arrives in Iran to Press for Release for Detained Briton<br />Johnson said that My first visit is an opportunity to hold further discussions on a series of crucial issues,<br />Mr. Johnson’s visit is his first to the region as foreign minister,<br />and the first to Iran by a British foreign secretary since 2015, the Foreign Office said.<br />Mr. Johnson was now expected to lobby Mr. Zarif for the release of Ms. Zaghari-Ratcliffe and other dual citizens being held in Iran.<br />9, 2017<br />TEHRAN — Britain’s foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, arrived in Tehran on Saturday as part of a three-nation tour of the Middle East, tasked with paying a huge outstanding debt to the Iranian government<br />and with pushing for the release of a dual citizen jailed on sedition charges.<br />But Tehran has signaled that it was willing to swap the detainees for Iranians held in the United States, in addition to seeking to clear old debts<br />and the release of at least 14 Iranians it says have been unfairly imprisoned or prosecuted by the United States or its allies.<br />Both Britain and Iran say the repayment would not be tied to Ms. Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s case, though the United<br />States made a similar payment to Iran around the time of the release in 2016 of four American citizens.<br />He also said he was concerned she might be on the verge of "a nervous breakdown." Iran has held several foreigners on charges<br />such as espionage, a continuing source of tension with Western nations, particularly the United States and Britain.
